What are the Gunas?

 

As I learn about the Gunas, I cannot help but relate to my studies in Ayurveda and the interplay of the doshas – vata, pitta, kapha, the three constitutions, which are made up of the five elements – earth, air, fire, water and ether. Vata is made up of air and ether, pitta is fire and water, and kapha consists of earth and water. Like the Gunas, all elements and doshas are constantly present, but at times one is more predominant than another. Dosha actually translates as “defect” because we see the dosha when it is defective or out of balance.  We see the vata quality out of balance in a person who is talkative, flighty, jittery, spacy or ungrounded. We see the kapha aspect, when someone is heavy, stagnant, slow or depressed. We see the fiery pitta quality in someone who is angry, agitated, loud or controlling. The three gunas, it seems, are the precursors to the five elements, which make up the doshas.

 

The word guna translates to mean “strand” or “fiber” and implies that, like strands of a rope, the gunas are woven together to form the objective universe. The sattva guna is translated as luminosity characterized as being light, pure, transparent, clear, content, peaceful and harmonious. Rajas is defined as vibrancy characterized as active, moving, agitated, ambitious, and energetic. Tamas is inertia, characterized as dark, heavy, opaque, unclear, depressed, dull, immobile, congested and obstinate. (Slovik, Yoga International)

 

Mr. Iyengar postulates in his Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, “the qualities of nature exist in mula prakriti or perfect equilibrium, one third sattva, one third raja and one third tamas.” (LOYS, 25). Our goal as practitioners is first, to strive to keep these qualities in their perfect proportions through our dedicated long term, uninterrupted practice of the eight limbs of ashtanga yoga. When we let up on our practice, the qualities of nature are reactivated and we are again at the mercy of their effects. Secondly, as we progress in our practice, we learn that “through the discipline of yoga, both actions and intelligence go beyond these qualities and the seer comes to experience his own soul with crystal clarity, free from the relative attributes of nature and actions. This state of purity is Samadhi.” (LOYS, 5)

 

The gunas are constantly communicating with one another to create the known universe, just as the five elements all co-exist to create the natural world. The stability of tamas, for example, creates the structure of our bones and muscles that hold up our physical frame and keep us from collapsing. The movement of rajas stimulates our lungs to draw in breaths of fresh oxygen that keep us alive. The sattva guna allows us to feel calm, balanced and contented because with too much movement, we become exhausted and with too much stagnation, we become dis-eased. 

 

Our ultimate aim in yoga, with respect to the gunas, is to reach emancipation, kaivalya, where the yogi  “lives in a positive state of life, above the tamasic, rajasic and sattvic influences of the three gunas of nature. He moves in the world and does day-to-day work dispassionately, without becoming involved in it. (LOYS, 8) In kaivalya, the yogi is stripped of thoughts, mind, intellect and ego, and freed from the play of the gunas… he becomes a gunatitan, a pure, flawless person.” (LOYS 39) 

 

 

References:

Iyengar, BKS, Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

Slovik, Rolf, Yoga International, The Gunas Chart

Slovik, Rolf, Yoga International, The Gunas: Nature’s Three Fundamental Forces